The late Y.B. Chavan once lamented that "Bombay is a part of Maharashtra but Maharashtra is not a part of Bombay."

That sentiment is still shared by many Maharashtrians, who now account for only about 35 per cent of the city's population and consequently feel they are slowly being squeezed out of jobs and housing by a tide of outsiders.

Many demands for the exclusion of foreigners have been raised in the last decade. Yet the city's non-Maharashtrian majority had no reason for worry till Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray successfully played on this feeling of resentment and triumphed in the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections last month.

Last fortnight, Thackeray made his intentions clear. At a victory rally in the city's sprawling Shivaji Park he stormed: "All those who came here after 1974 will be kicked out." Anxiety turned to near panic when Chief Minister Vasantdada Patil seemed to publicly support Thackeray by saying there was need to restrict entry into the city.

Even though Patil later clarified that he was merely repeating what experts had been saying all along his statement, coming as it did in the wake of Thackeray's threat, served only to further fuel non-Maharashtrian fears.

Thackeray's and Patil's statements raised the expected furore. In Parliament Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was compelled to state categorically that there would be no restrictions on free entry into Bombay.

Bal Thackeray haranguing an audience: Playing to the gallery

And Thackeray admitted in ah interview that his eviction plan could not be implemented without the cooperation of the Central and state governments. He promised, however, that he would tackle the problem of unauthorised squatters on a war footing.

"The BMC can do a lot if it implements its demolition programme mercilessly." As for the squatters, he says: "Let them quit the city. We won't provide them transport. Sometimes you have to use force to benefit the people."

There is no denying that many of Bombay's problems are widely perceived as arising out of a burgeoning population. Home to 4.1 million people in 1961, the city has now more than doubled its population and civic amenities today meet only a fourth of the need. Madhav Gadkari, editor of Loksatta, feels: "There is no alternative to restricted entry - not just from outside the state but from within Maharashtra itself. Unfortunately the whole issue has been given a Maharashtrian versus non-Maharashtrian image."

And retired high court judge R.R. Bhole says: "The Constitution does not say a person can move into any house and occupy it. Ultimately the interests of society are paramount over those of an individual."

However, more liberal sections of the city's residents were outraged that the suggestion of restricted entry was even being discussed seriously.

Bombay People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) president and eminent jurist H.M. Seervai came out strongly against what he termed a wholly unconstitutional measure, PUCL secretary Sydney Pinto pointed out that the cosmopolitan nature of Bombay had acted as a magnet for people of talent and enterprise, making it the biggest financial and industrial centre in India.

And lawyer Indira Jaisinh, who in 1981 filed a writ against demolitions undertaken by the BMC, felt the sharp increase in the city's population was due to natural causes rather than migration.

But Thackeray says: "Our movement is not an Assam for the Assamese type of agitation. My call is don't share our joys only, share our sorrows also. I will accept even Muslims if they qualify." At the same time he insists that Bombay's name should be changed to Mumbai.

"We will pass a resolution to this effect. We don't bother whether anyone likes it or not. Whose permission was taken before Madras was changed to Tamil Nadu?"

The only solution to save the city, as Gobind Talwalkar, editor of the Maharashtra Times, sees it is to launch a massive low-cost housing scheme, but in this area the authorities have been extremely negligent.

And last week the Central Government's allocation of a mere Rs 50 crore for the five-year plan to improve the city, against the state Government's request for Rs 1,000 crore, only succeeded in adding to the Bombay citizens' feeling of neglect.

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